However, when a person of color was found to be chatting with even identified members of the NAACP or SNCC, their job was immediately in jeopardy. This threat to their sole and limited source of income (often used to support entire families) meant that until job security was addressed, Moody would never see the number of blacks voting needed to change their circumstances. The irony was that unless things changed, most blacks would remain limited and bound by the bonds of debt and poverty. When Moody's stepmother, Emma, ​​was accidentally shot in the foot after becoming involved in a black married couple's argument over money and her husband's frustrations over not finding work, Moody admired Emma because she didn't blame her husband ; rather, he “placed the blame where it rightfully belonged,” on the whites who created and sustained a system in which it was “almost impossible for Negro men to make a living” (226). Despite his hope, Moody admits that from the beginning he knew the cause was hopeless. Until the issue of money and access to opportunities to earn that money were fair and equal between blacks and whites, blacks would "never stop being afraid" of the whites they detained. positions of power